Pittsburgh police computer perp working with feds

Sentencing has been delayed for a former City of Pittsburgh employee who took bribes connected to a police car equipment project, so she can continue to cooperate with an ongoing FBI investigation into police department business.

Christine Ann Kebr pleaded guilty to accepting $6,000 in bribes to help a man fraudulently obtain a $327,000 contract to install radios and computers in city police cars. She was scheduled to be sentenced next week but on Tuesday a judge delayed the hearing until May 15.

Attorneys for former city police Chief Nate Harper have acknowledged monitoring the case and expected him to be indicted on related charges by a federal grand jury that instead accused him of stealing nearly $32,000 money from a fund fueled by a fee the city charges bars and other businesses that hire its officers to work off-duty security details.

Kebr admitted conspiring with Arthur Bedway Jr., 63, of Robinson Township, and an unnamed woman who pretended to be the owner of Bedway's Alpha Outfitters business. The business got the set-aside contract in 2007 because the city believed the company was female-owned.

Court papers show Bedway has pleaded not guilty and is trying to work out a plea bargain. Bedway's attorney, Martin Dietz, has declined to comment on the charges but has said the city nonetheless got a "bargain" on the equipment.

Harper's attorneys, at the news conference after his indictment on the other charges Friday, said the former chief will plead guilty to the theft and related income tax charges, but also said he's been repeatedly questioned by the FBI about the Bedway contract and has denied wrongdoing. Specifically, Harper was asked whether he, too, took a bribe to help Bedway get the contract and has denied doing so, the attorneys said.

U.S. Attorney David Hickton has declined comment on the Bedway investigation, except to say it is ongoing.

Harper, a 36-year veteran of the police department who rose through the ranks to become chief in 2006, was asked to resign by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in February. That happened after the FBI briefed the mayor, though neither the FBI nor Ravenstahl has said whether that briefing concerned the theft charges, the Bedway matter, or both.

On Wednesday, the board of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority -- a state-appointed panel that oversees the cash-strapped city's finances -- voted to hire an accounting firm for $90,000 to audit the city's cash management. City Council last week passed legislation empowering city Controller Michael Lamb to review such policies and pay an outside consultant $20,000 to come up with procedures to prevent thefts like Harper's, which occurred after some money was transferred into unauthorized credit union accounts.

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